I've just read, my dear friend*, the new novel by Vynnychenko that you sent 332. What utter nonsense and stupidity! To heap together as many "horrors" as possible, to amalgamate both "vice" and "syphilis" and romantic villainy with extortion of money for a secret (and with the transformation of the sister of the extorted subject into a mistress), and a trial of the doctor! All of this with hysterics, with convulsions, with pretensions to "his own" theory of the organization of prostitutes. This organization represents nothing inherently evil, but precisely the author, Vynnychenko himself, turns it into absurdity, savors it, converts it into a "hobby-horse."

* - my dear friend. Ed.